Note: Footnotes in the print source have been moved to the end of the electronic document and numbered consecutively. For descriptive purposes, words and phrases preceding footnote markers in the print source have been added to the notes at the end of the electronic document. About the print versionAoi No Uye The No Plays of Japan Arthur Waley

1st Edition

Alfred A. Knopf New York 1922

Prepared for the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center.

NOTE ON AOI NO UYE.

At the age of twelve Prince Genji went through the ceremony of marriage with Aoi no Uye (Princess Hollyhock), the Prime Minister's daughter. She continued to live at her father's house and Genji at his palace. When he was about sixteen he fell in love with Princess Rokujo, the widow of the Emperor's brother; she was about eight years older than himself. He was not long faithful to her. The lady Yugao next engaged his affections. He carried her one night to a deserted mansion on the outskirts of the City. "The night was far advanced and they had both fallen asleep. Suddenly the figure of a woman appeared at the bedside. "I have found you!" it cried. "What stranger is this that lies beside you? What treachery is this that you flaunt before my eyes?" And with these words the apparition stooped over the bed, and made as though to drag away the sleeping girl from Genji's side." 1

Before dawn Yugao was dead, stricken by the "living phantom" of Rokujo, embodiment of her baleful jealousy.

Soon after this, Genji became reconciled with his wife Aoi, but continued to visit Rokujo. One day, at the Kamo Festival, Aoi's way was blocked by another carriage. She ordered her attendants to drag it aside. A scuffle ensued between her servants and those of Rokujo (for she was the occupant of the second carriage) in which Aoi's side prevailed. Rokujo's carriage was broken and Aoi's pushed into the front place. After the festival was over Aoi returned to the Prime Minister's house in high spirits.

Soon afterwards she fell ill, and it is at this point that the play begins.

There is nothing obscure or ambiguous in the situation. Fenollosa seems to have misunderstood the play and read into it complications and confusions which do not exist. He also changes the sex of the Witch, though the Japanese word, miko, always has a feminine meaning. The "Romance of Genji" (Genji Monogatari) was written by Lady Murasaki Shikibu and was finished in the year 1004 A. D. Of its fifty-four chapters only seventeen have been translated. 2 It furnished the plots of many No plays, of which Suma Genji (Genji's exile

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at Suma), No no Miya (his visit to Rokujo after she became a nun), Tamakatsura (the story of Yugao's daughter), and Hajitomi (in which Yugao's ghost appears) are the best known.

There is some doubt about the authorship of the play. Seami saw it acted as a Dengaku by his father's contemporary Inuo. He describes Inuo's entry on to the stage in the role of Rukujo and quotes the first six lines of her opening speech. These lines correspond exactly with the modern text, and it is probable that the play existed in something like its present form in the middle of the fourteenth century. Kwanze Nagatoshi, the great-grandson of Seami, includes it in a list of Seami's works; while popular tradition ascribes it to Seami's son-in-law Zenchiku.

And now, here at my side, stands the witch of Teruhi, 3 a famous diviner with the bow-string. My lord has been told that by twanging her bow-string she can make visible an evil spirit and tell if it be the spirit of a living man or a dead. So he bade me send for her and let her pluck her string. [ Turning to the Witch, who has been waiting motionless. ] Come, sorceress, we are ready!

In this Sah&amacr; World 10 where days fly like the lightning's flash None is worth hating and none worth pitying. This I knew. Oh when did folly master me?

You would know who I am that have come drawn by the twanging of your bow? I am the angry ghost of Rokujo, Lady of the Chamber.

Long ago I lived in the world. I sat at flower-feasts among the clouds. 11Page 148

On spring mornings I rode out In royal retinue and on autumn nights Among the red leaves of the Rishis' Cave I sported with moonbeams, With colours and perfumes My senses sated. I had splendour then; But now I wither like the Morning Glory Whose span endures not from dawn to midday. I have come to clear my hate.

O Hate, Hate! Her 14 hate so deep that on her bed Our lady 15 moans. Yet, should she live in the world again, 16 He would call her to him, her Lord The Shining One, whose light Is brighter than fire-fly hovering Over the slime of an inky pool.

[ She stands right over the bed, then turns away and at the back of the stage throws of her robe, which is held by Page 150

two attendants in such a way that she cannot be seen. She changes her "deigan" mask for a female demon's mask and now carries a mallet in her hand. ] [ Meanwhile the Courtier, who has been standing near the bed: ]Courtier